Margin requirements TDameritrade

so I have a butterflies for July on the ES which I paid debit of 84$ it’s 2920/2890/2860 max loss is the debit of 84$ now they are asking me for a margin of 440$ so I called the margin department and they say that there is a 16 calculated formula and the highest one is the margin requirement but anyway I break my head I can’t get to that number

 

Their job is to protect the firm, IB do it the same way. The IT guys have no idea how trading works.

 

Yeah I don’t know what there thinking there the max loss could be 1500 if the shirt expires in the money at the lowest point and then maybe the 30% requirement for that margin

 

Many online brokers use their own calculations for futures and options on futures because loading the SPAN files and doing the option calculations is often too hard, and they do not want you to use a high percentage of your margin in your trading.

Bob

 

@Robert Morse can u explain to me how the delta and Gemma are calculated ?

 

I assume using the BS model. You would have to ask them. We offer CQG which offers a choice of models. http://help.cqg.com/qtrader/#!Documents/valuationmodels.htm

 

We have a module for Options, Futures, and spreads trades that allows you to see the total margin impact.
This is via ADM and some of our spread traders use it.

 

Ameritrade margin requirements vary from instrument to instrument, and i think they also vary for regular and IRA accounts. For example, my ira account is margin enabled and i trade triple leveraged ETFs. Margin is approx a non factor in my case. May be like 10% more buying power, may be zero, i forget exactly. If any, it's not much.

 

Yeah, I have an mIRA through TDA. That fly is 1.75 mid (87.50) and they're asking $440 per fly. I don't trade ES vol through TDA much, but stick to SPY or SPX.

Now, why are you trading a 30-wide fly out to July?

 

I’m trying to make some money what is a Mira ?